diff --git a/server/src/internalClusterTest/java/org/elasticsearch/cluster/coordination/RareClusterStateIT.java b/server/src/internalClusterTest/java/org/elasticsearch/cluster/coordination/RareClusterStateIT.java
index 1092f5249cf42..024545fbe68dd 100644
--- a/server/src/internalClusterTest/java/org/elasticsearch/cluster/coordination/RareClusterStateIT.java
+++ b/server/src/internalClusterTest/java/org/elasticsearch/cluster/coordination/RareClusterStateIT.java
@@ -15,7 +15,6 @@
 import org.elasticsearch.action.ActionRequestBuilder;
 import org.elasticsearch.action.ActionResponse;
 import org.elasticsearch.action.index.IndexResponse;
-import org.elasticsearch.action.support.PlainActionFuture;
 import org.elasticsearch.action.support.master.AcknowledgedResponse;
 import org.elasticsearch.cluster.ClusterState;
 import org.elasticsearch.cluster.ClusterStateUpdateTask;
@@ -29,7 +28,6 @@
 import org.elasticsearch.cluster.routing.ShardRouting;
 import org.elasticsearch.cluster.routing.allocation.AllocationService;
 import org.elasticsearch.cluster.service.ClusterService;
-import org.elasticsearch.common.Priority;
 import org.elasticsearch.common.settings.Settings;
 import org.elasticsearch.core.TimeValue;
 import org.elasticsearch.index.Index;
@@ -134,43 +132,15 @@ private <Req extends ActionRequest, Res extends ActionResponse> ActionFuture<Res
         // Wait for no publication in progress to not accidentally cancel a publication different from the one triggered by the given
         // request.
         final Coordinator masterCoordinator = internalCluster().getCurrentMasterNodeInstance(Coordinator.class);
-
-        ensureNoPendingMasterTasks().actionGet(TimeValue.timeValueSeconds(30));
+        assertBusy(() -> {
+            assertFalse(masterCoordinator.publicationInProgress());
+            final long applierVersion = masterCoordinator.getApplierState().version();
+            for (Coordinator instance : internalCluster().getInstances(Coordinator.class)) {
+                assertEquals(instance.getApplierState().version(), applierVersion);
+            }
+        });
         ActionFuture<Res> future = req.execute();
-
-        // cancel the first cluster state update produced by the request above
         assertBusy(() -> assertTrue(masterCoordinator.cancelCommittedPublication()));
-        // await and cancel any other forked cluster state updates that might be produced by the request
-        var task = ensureNoPendingMasterTasks();
-        while (task.isDone() == false) {
-            masterCoordinator.cancelCommittedPublication();
-            Thread.onSpinWait();
-        }
-        task.actionGet(TimeValue.timeValueSeconds(30));
-
-        return future;
-    }
-
-    private PlainActionFuture<Void> ensureNoPendingMasterTasks() {
-        var future = new PlainActionFuture<Void>();
-        internalCluster().getCurrentMasterNodeInstance(ClusterService.class)
-            .submitUnbatchedStateUpdateTask("test", new ClusterStateUpdateTask(Priority.LANGUID, TimeValue.timeValueSeconds(30)) {
-
-                @Override
-                public ClusterState execute(ClusterState currentState) {
-                    return currentState;
-                }
-
-                @Override
-                public void clusterStateProcessed(ClusterState oldState, ClusterState newState) {
-                    future.onResponse(null);
-                }
-
-                @Override
-                public void onFailure(Exception e) {
-                    future.onFailure(e);
-                }
-            });
         return future;
     }
 
@@ -188,9 +158,8 @@ public void testDeleteCreateInOneBulk() throws Exception {
         indexDoc("test", "1");
         refresh();
         disruption.startDisrupting();
-        logger.info("--> delete index");
+        logger.info("--> delete index and recreate it");
         executeAndCancelCommittedPublication(client().admin().indices().prepareDelete("test").setTimeout("0s")).get(10, TimeUnit.SECONDS);
-        logger.info("--> and recreate it");
         executeAndCancelCommittedPublication(
             prepareCreate("test").setSettings(
                 Settings.builder()